Red tape delays power woe solution

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

DAVAO CITY, Philippines—The head of a group of electric cooperatives in Mindanao reacted sharply to President Aquino’s statement blaming the cooperatives for Mindanao’s continuing power crisis, saying bureaucratic red tape is keeping the cooperatives from tapping what could be a band-aid solution to the crisis—loans for generators.

Sergio Dagooc, head of the Association of Mindanao Rural Electric Cooperatives (Amreco), said that while the national government had set aside P4 billion for loans that the cooperatives may avail themselves of to buy generators, red tape was delaying the process.

First, cooperatives have to go through a “long bidding process” and, after this, wait for the approval by the Department of Energy (DOE).

“It will take 90 to 120 days for electric cooperatives to install the units,” Dagooc said. “But then, after the units are installed, electric cooperatives still have to apply for approval at the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) before they can start running the new modular generating sets,” he said.

Waiting for ERC approval, he added, “takes years.”

“I am proposing that instead of finger pointing,” Dagooc said, “they should help resolve the issues we raised about the long delay (in the process of approving the use of generators by cooperatives) because the problem lies not within our control.”

President Aquino has expressed exasperation over the failure of most electric cooperatives to avail themselves of the loan program for generators.

Dagooc said that at least

P2 billion had been given to the National Electrification Administration for the loan program.

Many cooperatives have already bought generators through the loan program, “but they cannot run because they have not been approved by the ERC.”

Mr. Aquino issued Executive Order No. 137, setting aside P4.5 billion in funds from the Malampaya proceeds to be lent out to cooperatives to buy generators.

Dagooc said his group respected the President’s view and that it was not the President’s fault that “we have a power crisis in Mindanao.”

He said the crisis was a result of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) that did everything but reform the power industry.

Red tape, he said, was discouraging many cooperatives from availing themselves of the loans.

“The President should know that the long process in which electric cooperatives can avail [themselves] of Executive Order No. 137 is hampering the immediate solution to the crisis,” Dagooc said.

Many Mindanao areas are suffering from up to six hours of brownouts daily as a result of a shortage in electric supply attributed mainly to the reduced operations of two main hydropower facilities—Agus and Pulangi.

But the Davao del Sur Electric Cooperative (Dasureco) said it could assure its more than 60,000 consumers in the provinces of Davao del Sur and Davao Occidental of uninterrupted power supply through modular generators.

Dasureco is among only eight cooperatives in Mindanao that have started using the generators. Reports from Germelina Lacorte, Eldie Aguirre and Orlando Dinoy, Inquirer Mindanao